In the evening, Yuan Ye went home to pick up Li Sheng. Surprisingly, Li Sheng was not working; instead, he was sitting on the balcony smoking a cigarette. Yuan Ye frowned slightly, walked over to Li Sheng in two or three steps, and stubbed out the cigarette in his hand. From somewhere, he pulled out a White Rabbit creamy candy and stuffed it into Li Sheng’s mouth. Li Sheng looked a bit dissatisfied. “I find that you’ve been sticking your nose into everything lately.”
Yuan Ye didn’t speak, and pulled Li Sheng over to change his clothes. “We’re going to see Yang Shu and Du Yu in a while to sign the contract.”
Remembering business matters, Li Sheng stopped arguing, changed his clothes, and went out the door with Yuan Ye. It was a silent drive all the way until they parked directly at the restaurant—the same one Du Yu had brought him to the first time.
The moment Yang Shu saw Li Sheng, he clicked his tongue in wonder. “Li Sheng, you’re doing quite well for yourself now, attending events together with President Yuan too?”
Li Sheng glared at Yang Shu, and that glaring gaze was caught right in the act by Yuan Ye, who smiled faintly and beckoned everyone to sit down. “Let’s order first. I don’t know what Director Yang’s tastes are, take a look at the menu.”
Yang Shu didn’t act like an outsider at all, ordering a few dishes he loved to eat, and then handed the menu back to Yuan Ye. Yuan Ye added a few dishes and let the waiter leave. “The contracts have all been drafted, everyone take a look. Regarding the company acquisition issue here, it involves everyone’s interests, so let’s discuss it today. As for personnel issues, if you have a good team, you can join together, salary is not a problem.”
Yang Shu nodded slightly. “I just looked over the contract, there are no problems. The company scale isn’t large either, so there’s no need to fuss too much. I see the startup capital isn’t much either; just the equipment alone probably won’t be enough, right?”
Yuan Ye called the waiter to open some wine. “I’m a novice in the advertising industry and haven’t dabbled much. The two of you are the professionals, and in the future the company will mainly rely on the two of you to manage it. Therefore, the startup capital is limited to decoration, hiring personnel, material costs, and so on. As for equipment, you just need to list out what’s needed, and I will prepare it.”
As soon as Yang Shu heard this, he perked up. “President Yuan is truly a straightforward person, cooperating with you makes me feel very secure. Let me toast President Yuan a cup, for our first cooperation.”
Yuan Ye shook his head. “Let’s substitute wine with water, I don’t drink alcohol.”
Just as Yang Shu wanted to say something, Du Yu chimed in, “I’ll drink with you on behalf of President Yuan. President Yuan really doesn’t drink when he goes out. I know the drinking capacity of you two is quite good; last time with Sheng Ge, you drank very happily. Come, come, come, let’s have a drink.”
Watching the three of them drinking happily while he sat alone to the side, occasionally saying a few words and watching Li Sheng’s radiant expression as he drank, Yuan Ye found it exceptionally pleasing to the eye. Originally, he shouldn’t have let him drink, but today Yuan Ye just wanted to get him drunk. He kept signaling Du Yu with his eyes, and Du Yu, receiving the signal, opened up his drinking capacity to drink with the other two. As they drank, Yang Shu became a bit tipsy, put his arm around Du Yu’s shoulder and said, “Manager Du, the first time I saw you, I thought, why are you so pale? Were you soaked in a vat of milk as a child?”
Seeing that Yang Shu was starting to run his mouth unchecked, Du Yu felt a bad premonition. He dreaded this side of Yang Shu the most, especially since Yuan Ye was present today and they were here to sign a contract; it wouldn’t do to say inappropriate things. He lowered his voice and said to Yuan Ye, “President Yuan, it’s about time, let’s head back. Tomorrow we’ll go check out the company together, and once both sides sign, that’ll be it.”
Seeing Yang Shu and Du Yu all clingy together, Yuan Ye couldn’t help finding it funny—Du Yu was certainly no pushover, yet he was left completely helpless by Yang Shu. Smiling, he nodded. “You send him back, I’ll go the same way as Li Sheng.”
Li Sheng was a bit tipsy, lowering his head, not knowing what he was doing. Du Yu glanced sideways at Li Sheng, and suddenly said with a mischievous smile to Yuan Ye, “You really have your ways.”
After Du Yu and Yang Shu went out the door, Yuan Ye walked behind Li Sheng and bent down to take a look. It turned out Li Sheng had been looking down at a text message the whole time, which read: Your brother said you got hurt, are you okay?
Without needing to ask, Yuan Ye knew who this person was, and his anger flared up instantly. When he pulled Li Sheng up, he only then noticed that Li Sheng was crying, his eye sockets blazing red as two lines of tears flowed down his cheeks. Yuan Ye was very angry, but seeing him look like this, he couldn’t bear to scold him. “Do you love him that much? A single text message and you can’t handle it?”
Li Sheng abruptly stood up, wiped away his tears, lowered his hat, and walked out of the private room. Yuan Ye slammed his fist hard against the table, then quickly followed him out.
There was a supermarket next to the restaurant. After Li Sheng went inside, he didn’t come out for a long time. Just as Yuan Ye was about to go in to look for him, he saw him walking out clutching a bag of candies, his cheeks bulging, not knowing how many he had stuffed inside.
Li Sheng walked a long way, finally standing on a bridge, letting the breeze blow against him, not moving at all. Yuan Ye stood beside him and hugged him from behind. “Today is the last time I’ll let you think of him. From now on, every time you think of him, I’ll mount you once.”